Anne Read

Colleagues will be sorry to learn of the death, on 20 November 2025, of Anne Read, former Sub-Librarian.  The following tribute has been contributed by her friend and colleague, Roger Davis.

Anne was born in Glasgow but her family moved to Hull during the war and she spent her childhood in Yorkshire, attending school at Rise Hall. She was a very successful student and she gained a place at St Hugh’s College, Oxford

After graduating from Oxford, Anne Cromwell (as she was then) spent a year gaining library experience in the Bodleian Library before studying for her professional librarianship qualification. She was then appointed to a post of Assistant Librarian in the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds in September 1966, where she worked in the Cataloguing Room. In August 1967 she left to marry Peter Read whom she had met at Oxford. The couple moved to Solihull where Peter taught, and Anne was employed as an Assistant Librarian in Birmingham University Library. When Peter obtained a post at Giggleswick School, they moved to Yorkshire and eventually to a much-loved former farmhouse near Eldroth. Anne returned to the Brotherton Library in September 1974, at first as a cataloguer but soon being made the Assistant Librarian responsible for liaison with the University’s Estates Office when repairs and alterations to the building and its services were needed.

At first Anne’s remit covered only the Brotherton Library but from 1975, when the new South (Edward Boyle) Library opened, she was responsible also for works there, and in the Medical Library. As well as day to day repairs and replacements, Anne organised the temporary staff who were appointed in most summers to re-arrange library space to cope with the growing collections. Anne’s efficiency, her calmness in crisis, and her easy manner led to excellent relations with colleagues not only in the Library but, equally importantly, with those in other parts of the University, especially in the Estates Office. They respected her understanding of problems and her willingness to consider alternatives, as equally her polite but firm insistence when, in the Library’s interest, she was not prepared to compromise. The good working relationships she developed with them were crucial to getting the Library’s requirements fulfilled at times when there was great demand on central services from all quarters of the University. Never were Anne’s skills more important than when the long-awaited extension to the Brotherton Library, the West Building, was being planned and built in 1992-93. As well as almost constant liaison with planners, builders, technicians, and tradesmen of every description as it was being built, Anne then organised the workers needed to move nearly every book in the Library into a new position. Her skills were again central to the planning and construction of the Edward Boyle Library's extension in 1995-97.

Anne was promoted in 1988 to Senior Assistant Librarian in recognition of her important position in the Library’s administrative structure, and in 1992 to Sub-Librarian. By 1997, however, the 50-mile drive twice a day and the growing infrequency and unreliability of the trains were taking their toll on Anne’s health. Working from home was not an option then, of course, nor would it have been feasible for the type of work Anne did. To all her colleagues’ regret, she took early retirement that summer, in order to devote more time to a cause dear to her and nearer her home, the Museum of North Craven Life. She returned, however, in 1998 as external consultant to the team planning the restructuring of the Library's organisation; her communication skills contributed considerably to the successful implementation of its recommendations. As well as for her professional expertise and communication skills Anne will be remembered for the kindly interest she always took in work colleagues at all levels and in their families.

The funeral service will be held at 10.30am on Wednesday 17 December 2025, at Austwick Church (1 Clapham Rd, Austwick, Lancaster LA2 8BE), followed by refreshments in the Village Hall, on which day the flag on the Parkinson Building will be flown at half-mast in her memory.